Gone all Pop! The poster for Los Chavos

I did a shoot for 9-piece Latin band 'Los Chavos' a couple of weeks ago and have been busy processing them up. One of the parts of the commission (the kinda optional part) was to produce a poster for the band in the style Pop Art Cartoon by taking headshots of the band and reducing them effectively to solid colour paintings. I'd not tried it before but I knew it was possible so I agreed. I'd shot the headshots using the intense blue of our autumnal skies to make it easier to mask out later and replace it with whatever colour I chose.

When I first approached the task I thought 'It'll be easiest just to paint these in Photoshop using the original photo as a base.'. But then I'm not the greatest illustrator in the world and in effect I was afraid they wouldn't look any good (I'm sure I'm not alone on that front) so I went for what I thought was the safest option ... trialling and recording a series of actions incorporating various filters in Photoshop. The two main filters were 'Poster Edges' and 'Cutout' which I chose for their ability to effectively reduce the number of colours and tones I wanted in my final image. OK so after a couple of testy tweaky runs I passed all nine of the images through the action ... and? Well, the results weren't great, at least for most of the images. One worked really well, two others were alright and the remaining six were rubbish. I re-tweaked the processing and got a slightly better result: three out of the nine were now pretty close to where I wanted them to be ... that only left six (the same six as before!) still looking rubbish.

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Hmmm ... there was always the painting option... so I began to paint. Not from scratch but using an intermediary layer created during the processing action. Using my editing tablet, I selected a hard brush, sampled colours as I went and well, painted! I was soon pretty caught up in the process and while each picture took a while (about 30 minutes each I guess) I was pretty bloody satisfied with the result. 

wpid-20130519_NIKON-D600_LPI_6288-Edit.jpg

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When I arranged all nine into the poster and coloured them up yellow, blue or red ... I literally said 'wow!'. I should note that I'm easily impressed with my own cleverness ;-)

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The members of Los Chavos love it (and all the other non-painty ones which I'll post soon) so I think I've found another artform ... who'd a thunk it?

 


I'm guest blogger today over at Vision and Verb

In what amounts to my first ever ... I am today's guest blogger over at Vision and Verb. I was nominated by my friend Ginnie who is a regular poster here at Pictures with Words. The article is my post Falling Out of the Habit of Writing (over at Vision and Verb here)

Vision and Verb describe themselves as a '...global gathering of women of this age' and you can read more about their philosophy. Astute readers of this blog will have worked out by now that I am not a woman. Apparently the gathering enjoys male blood on occasion though I have to admit this wasn't made explicitly clear in our initial correspondence! ;-)

Regardless of the whole blood thing, I'm chuffed that they thought my post was something that related well to the group's directions and philosophy and I'd like to say a big thank you to them. :-)


Melbourne across the Yarra - Tiny Planet


I learned how to do a 'Tiny Planet' image from an existing panorama last night. This was taken last year in lovely Melbourne. Shot from the south bank, it's a view of Melbourne across the Yarra River. A 5-shot panorama stitched together in Photoshop before being 'planeted'.

The tutorial I followed was this one published by www.photoguides.net and it was ridiculously simple to produce something gorgeous.

Go and give it a go and be sure to let us know how you got on :-)

In lovely Melbourne last year ... had a lovely time. More a family trip than a photo trip ... but I did get out and about a couple of times. This is a 5-frame pano stitched together in Photoshop the 'planetted'
In lovely Melbourne last year ... had a lovely time. More a family trip than a photo trip ... but I did get out and about a couple of times. This is a 5-frame pano stitched together in Photoshop then 'planeted'

Organ donor? I have decided. Have you? Does your family know?

Donate life LogoI was reminded by Ally over at her blog everyday miracles that it's Donate Life week - an initiative by the Australian Government to promote awareness of and (hopefully) increase the number of people willing to donate their organs. Organ donation in Australia is low. In fact, Australia has one of the lowest donation rates in the developed world.

I have always rationally believed in organ donation ... although I admit to finding the subject a little disturbing at first. I found that if I turned it around... if I thought about how I would feel if someone had donated to me and given me what amounts to a most precious gift ... then signing up for my card would be a lot less disturbing. So that's what I did. I figured if I'm not around to require it any more then someone else would be free to use it. I signed up, I had my discussion with my family who thankfully agree with donation and are (for the most part) organ donors too.

Some facts about organ donation in Australia (from the donate life website)

  • One organ, eye and tissue donor can save or enhance the lives of 10 or more people.
  • Australia is a world leader for successful transplant outcomes, yet has one of the lowest donation rates in the developed world.
  • Around 1600 people are on Australian organ transplant waiting lists.
  • On average, people on the transplant list can wait between 6 months and 4 years. 4 years!

With a majority of Australians generally willing to become organ donors it is vitally important that people willing to donate their organs have a memorable discussion with their family about their wishes. In Australia, the family will always be asked to confirm the donation wishes of the deceased before donation for transplantation can proceed. Less than 60% of Australian families give consent so it's again vital that your discussions are had and that they are memorable.

I carry my card, my family knows.

Organ donor? I have decided. Have you?

 

http://www.donatelife.gov.au/decide


Photography Australia - Know Your Rights

Have you ever been out taking photos in the street or other public space and been approached by 'Security'? Ever wondered what your legal rights as a photographer are? I've compiled a list of useful resources to assist you and I'll add new resources as I come across them. If you're aware of any others please let me know so I can add them here and make this resource as comprehensive as possible.

"Photography Australia - Know Your Rights"

4020 φ NSW Photographer's Rights
Focussed on New South Wales but contains a LOT of valuable information, references, examples and real cases. It is lengthy and thorough and give Australia-wide examples and references where available. A most valuable resource and a must read for anyone interested in their legal rights as a photographer.

Arts Law Centre of Australia
The Arts Law Centre of Australia is the national community legal centre for the arts in Australia ... this link points to the Street Photographers rights page.

Caslon - unauthorised photography
Australian debate about unauthorised taking and publishing of photographs.

Copyright in Australia
Australian Copyright Council [http://www.copyright.org.au/]

Photography is not a crime [Sydney Morning Herald Blog]
Photography is not a crime [Sydney Morning Herald Blog] - an interesting experience by a Sydney Morning Herald journalist.


International Bit & Pieces

Photographers' Rights [UK]
Downloadable booklet [now in Version 2!]

Luminous Landscape [Erosion of photographers' rights - USA]
Mostly American but contains comment from Nick Rains from an Australian perspective

Nature Photographers [Erosion of photographers' rights - USA]